I don’t know if you believe in time travel or not, but if you ask coach Drury of the Eastern Lady Musketeers, you might make her start to wonder if she is driving the Delorian from Back to the Future, back to the year 2017. This is significant because the year 2017 is the last time that a Taylor Drury led team, as a player, made a winning appearance in the 2a State Finals against Oak Hill. Now fast forward to 2026 and you have a Taylor Drury led team, as a coach, heading to the 2a State Finals against who you might ask? None other than Oak Hill. The Lady M’s achieved this feat on Saturday, February 21 st when they traveled roughly two hours and seventeen minutes to Greencastle for the 2a South semi-state round. The Lady M’s first match-up was against the heavily favored North Knox Warriors. The Warriors came in as a ten-point favorite, but the Lady M’s did not let that deter them from their game plan, which was play hard-nose defense and get the ball inside to Sidney Burton. They set the tone with this game plan in the first quarter as they outscored the Warriors 14-9 with Sid knocking down three early baskets from inside the paint. The Warriors would not make it easy on the Lady Musketeers as they picked up their offense in the second quarter. The Lady M’s never folded as they just edged North Knox 12-11 in the second period to take a 27-20 lead into the locker room. The offenses that went into the locker room at the half forgot to come out in the third quarter as the game turned into a defensive battle. Sidney Burton knocked down a runner in the lane around the 7:20 mark, and then the North Knox defense clamped down and the Eastern offense literally stopped. The Warriors also tightened up the game as they scored the next six points to trim the Eastern lead to just three at 29-26, prompting an Eastern timeout. The time out did not seem to benefit the Musketeer offense any as they went over five minutes without a bucket, before Sidney Burton was able to knock down another inside shot for her and the teams fourth point in the quarter. The time out did bolster the defense tho as the Lady M's held the Warriors to just two points of their own in that final 5:32, as they were clinging to a 31-28 lead going into the fourth quarter. With both teams fighting to keep their seasons alive the offenses kicked up a notch in the fourth quarter.
The Warriors took over the lead at the 6:30 mark, going up 33-31, and then stretched that to 35-31 with six minutes exactly left. The Musketeers never faltered tho as they battled back, tying it on a bucket by junior Katie Hauner with 4:48 remaining. The game stayed tied until two Addie Smith free throws with 3:51 left gave Eastern a 37-35 lead. That lead would only last eleven seconds as North Knox would bury a three-point field goal, giving them the lead back at 38-37. Both teams would trade scores, and North Knox was in control, clinging to a 40-39 lead with just two minutes to play. Sidney Burton came up with one opportunity to give her team a 42-40 lead with just 1:25 left. The Lady M’s would stretch this to a four-point lead with 44 seconds to go before North Knox would score again to cut it to just a two-point game. Eastern’s go-to player for the game, Sidney Burton, would pick up her fifth foul with 26 seconds left in the game and the Lady M’s clinging to a slim lead at 45-44. With 13.6 seconds left in the game and the Eastern fans holding their breath, it was junior Bailey Trainor who provided the exhale. Trainor had not scored a point all game, but with 13.6 seconds left, she found herself standing at the free-throw line looking to extend the lead to at least three. Trainor was cold as ice and calmly buried both free throws to extend the lead to 47-44. The Lady M's tacked on two more free throws before the final buzzer sounded to advance to the championship round with a 49-44 victory. When asked about the game, Coach Drury had this to say. “I wish I could have bought a ticket to watch that basketball game. I just feel like that was a phenomenal game to watch, not great to coach because obviously I am a nervous wreck over there on the sideline over there. I was a little worried because that team is so disciplined and they check every box and do everything right down to the T, and I was nervous because sometimes we struggle to do those things, but I’ll say this about my girls, I can not waver from the fact that they have to be the toughest team in Indiana. Mentally, physically, they just ride through adversity, and they keep battling and I just can’t express how proud I am of them for pulling that one out.” With the win, it gave the Lady M’s just six hours to put together a game plan as they would be faced with the task of defeating the Park Heritage Wolves, a team that had the luxury of relaxing at home as they were only thirty minutes away from Greencastle. The Eastern staff did a tremendous job on putting a game plan together and the Lady M’s did an even better job of executing it. While Sidney Burton had been a beast down low all through the playoffs, she seemed to have lost some of her legs as shots around the rim and even free throws weren’t falling for her to start the Championship game. “I’m usually more consistent, I think I was a little tired, I didn’t really have as many legs under me as I should have had” Burton said after the game. With her struggling, the guards picked up the slack in the first quarter as they went two for three from the three point lead, pacing the Lady M’s to a 10-6 first quarter lead. Sid was able to shake off her first quarter struggles in the second quarter. With 4:00 left in the first half and the Musketeers holding a 17-15 lead they ripped off seven points in 39 seconds to force Park Heritage into a time out. Thanks to this seven point burst it enabled them to outscore the Wolves 12-11 in the quarter as they held a 24-19 lead at the break. The third quarter started out just as close as the second ended with Eastern only increasing the lead to 30-24 with four minutes remaining. The Lady M’s closed the quarter on an 8-3 run to put them in the drivers seat with a double digit lead at the start of the fourth at 38-27. Not wanting to see their season end the Wolves picked up the defensive pressure and forced the Lady M’s into costly turnovers. The Wolves turned these turnovers into points as they outscored Eastern 7-2 in the first five minutes of the fourth to cut the lead down to just two possessions at 40-34. They would extend that run to 12-4 getting to within three at 42-39 with 1:18 remaining. The Eastern defense was able to right the ship and the offense was able to knock down enough of their free throws to pick up the 48-41 semi-state championship, this driving that Delorian right back into the State Finals. When asked about the body of work that went in to this tournament run, Coach Drury had this to say. “Our staff and administration does such a great job prepping and supporting us to where we can just go play. Everything behind the scenes is just always taken care of and I hope this week the girls can stay comfortable and confident with all the things going on, and I want to do my best to make them as confident and comfortable as possible and hopefully go up there and bring home another banner”.
The Lady M’s would love to see not only the little town of Pekin make the trip to Indy on, but all their Washington County friends pack the stands with purple and gold as well. They will play Saturday, February 28 th around 12:45 against Oak Hill. If you can not make it to Indy you can stream the game for a fee on IHSAA TV. Just Google IHSAA Champions Network. Good Luck Lady M’s.
